Those in the know among former and active military cast wary eyes toward developments in the Oriental world. Every serious interview that comes forward these days brings the direst of thoughts from these experts who genuinely foresee war with China.
The dragon has awakened, and it is thirsty. This dragon is prophesied to be energized by another serpent, also called “the great red dragon,” “Satan,” and “the devil.” This energizing of China in the prophetic future by the ancient foe of God is found primarily in two places in the book of Revelation.
The first of the relevant passages is found in the 9th chapter:
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. (Revelation 9:13–16)
The apostle John, through words given him by God, expanded upon the prophecy in chapter 16:
And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Revelation 16:12–14)
The king of the kings of the east–unless something very dramatic happens to change the configuration of things east of the Euphrates, has to be China. It could, by itself, have manned a 200-million soldier army even as far back as the 1970s. Today, with the other nations of Asia and their massive populations, the 200 million figure presents no problem at all so far as potential for fulfillment of the prophecy is concerned. And, certainly, China exerts hegemony over all of the other nations of its oriental sphere. Many within secular news media are beginning to recognize the same things those who watch Bible prophecy and current events have been recognizing for some time. China indeed looks like a major influence on factors that might bring nations into a conflict the size and scope of Armageddon.
Each day brings news of China intruding into waters near Taiwan and flying over Taiwan’s airspace. The ongoing close encounters of US and Chinese warships in the South China seas bring disaster ever closer. The Chinese are declaring all of that water territory to be theirs, despite that maritime law and territorial statutes clearly demark waters that are open to all maritime ship movements. The Chinese government is obviously deliberately provoking many of these dangerous confrontations. Any one of the encounters can bring about an accidental incident that could initiate open warfare between the two nuclear giants.
The present American administration, like in so many other areas of its responsibility, seems clueless as to how to rein in the behemoth of Asia.
There is little doubt in my thinking that China will at some point recapture Taiwan (formerly Formosa). This is because all of the world’s powers of the Orient east of the Euphrates are called “the kings of the east.”
China, because of its ravenous ambitions to conquer, needs ever-increasing energy to fuel its voracious military and commercial lusts. They really don’t care about the general populations of their dictatorship. But they are, experts observe, intent on making deals with nations with oil resources through fiscal alternatives to the American petroleum dollar. Like the globalists of the World Economic Forum and all other New World Order sorts, China’s chief concentration these dangerous days is on bringing down the power and authority the United States maintains over economic matters such as world oil resources.
When Antichrist comes to power, the Bible foretells:
But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many. (Daniel 11:44)
Increasingly, then, it looks like oil will bring all the nations into the valley of Jezreel for the showdown at Armageddon. It is as if sin, itself, which invaded humankind because of disobedience in the Garden of Eden, has to come to its full recompense at this future date of human destiny. The Fall caused all of the earth, particularly the area where the Garden of Eden was located, to begin a deadly degeneration for all plant and animal life. The second law of thermodynamics—entropy—dictates that all things continue to deteriorate. All physical matter is to turn to dust—or, apparently, to oil.
I don’t intend to get into controversy about what creates oil, but scientists believe the great oil deposits of the earth are where massive amounts of vegetable and animal matter have been buried, then compressed through eons to produce the fossil fuels we now burn in record amounts every year.
Now, the “dragon” of the Orient–China—is thirsty for its share of the black, incendiary liquid. And, its thirst is potentially beyond even that of the industrialized world of the West. There is a showdown coming, it looks like.
Sin has brought humankind to this point. It started in the region of Mesopotamia and the Euphrates River, where the Occidental world meets the Oriental. Prophecy says that demarcation line will be breached–supernaturally, I believe—with the drying-up of the Euphrates, so demon-possessed masses of military forces from the Orient can easily troop to the valley of Jehoshaphat for man’s final war before Christ’s triumphant return.
Terry James Prophecy Line 
This is weird Terry, your email is a blank page until I go to do a reply to it. Then the text and everything shows up. I will check my email settings to see if I inadvertently turned something”on” or “off”. Lord BlessMark
I think the problem is WordPress Terry.
With all due respect and deference to your greater scholarship, I disagree with the notion that this army is China — not that China is not a threat. However, when taken literally, John’s description of this army precludes it from being that of a human army. In my humble opinion, this is a demonic hoard that is released. This army brings with it plagues for those who survive and refuse to repent of their idolatry (9:20). I don’t think China cares anything about what others worship. I know our Brother Hal Lindsay in “The Late Great Planet Earth” hypothesized that John used the only language he had available to him to describe futuristic weapons of war, and in many instances, I can agree with that hypothesis, however, not in this case. Anyway, that is just how I see it and I am certainly not infallible.
I completely agree this is not a human army. First of all the crossing of a couple of rivers is no problem for any modern army. Second, it is a massive problem to raise a two hundred million man army. China’s army is a tiny fraction of that. It would take possibly decades to get to a fully equipped army 100 times the size of the correct one. The logistics of supporting the housing, feeding, training, commanding, controlling, deploying, and equipping of that size an army is impossible from a financial and material standpoint. Also, a third of the earth population is killed which must include China. China does not get a pass from experiencing the judgements poured out on the earth. This is a supernatural army probably from the abyss and commanded by Apollyon. If you look at the description in chapter 9 it does not seem to be human soldiers. Just too many problems with this interpretation in my opinion.
The Kings of the East, and their hordes could well reference China, India, Indonesia and others. Let’s not forget the Islamic religion is vast in Indonesia, and has spread exponentially in the last 40+ years to other areas including America! While India is not primarily Islamic, the relationship between Modi and Netanyahoo has been significant in areas of commerce because Israel recognizes India’s vast potential with almost as many people as China has. Neither China or India may not care who other people(s) worship, but radical Islam does care! Their reasoning for going to war is religious! Other factions are in it for the potential resources Terry mentioned, i.e., oil, especially since Israel has newly discovered gas-oil fields, and there’s talk of building a trans-Arabian pipeline to facilitate transport. For 1 group of people, its all about the money(oil), for another group its about anniliating Israel, and for still another group its all about weaponizing the world for the sake of a 1-world digital currency. For still another group its about controlling the world’s, reducing the population to a sustainable number, i.e. under a billion people! And finally for the last and most wicked of all man devised schemes, its about melding human consciousness with machine to make man immortal! I don’t agree with the final battle Armageddon being fought with some supernatural demonic entity that make up the 200 million man army desrcibed in Revelation. I believe its actual people doing the fighting against a returning triumphant Jesus before He steps down on the Mount of Olives and separates the Sheep from the Goat nations!
I love your articles keep it up . I have loved history my entire life & if there is one common thread on mankind it is this “ open your eyes so you can see”. People are so closed right now it borders on the unbelievable !!!
A question: If the Antichrist’s power and actions are directly due to the power of Satan and if he is also controlling the “kings of the east,” why do they start out opposing each other?
I just saw on I-24 News today China is building a facility in the UAE to support building certain kinds of facilities that America under Biden is conceding.These are for facilitating the oil and gas China is increasingly buying from the Middle East, and probably eventually military transportation systems! They already have such a facility in Djibouti-eastern Africa. China’s influence is growing by the day fulfilling Bible prophecy. Ed, where in the Bible does it say these kings of the east begin by opposing each other-just curious?
Daniel {11:44} But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he
shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. {11:45} And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
This is more of the passage from the commentary above. What I get from this is that the kings of the east do not oppose each other, but ally themselves to go against the Antichrist. China, as we know, is essentially an atheistic society, a prime target for the devil to manipulate already and the Antichrist will be Satan’s puppet. (I don’t China’s historical connection to dragons is at all coincidental, either, though they probably have no idea of this tie-in.) Anyhow, it looks like Satan will be pitting two of his agents against each other in the beginning.
As I thought about this since posing the question, this initial conflict may be what sets the stage for the 200-million troop army that will one day cross a dried-up Euphrates, under the Antichrist’s control since the passage above seems to indicate he is successful in overcoming these eastern kings.
Maybe that is the devil’s plan after all and China is already setting itself up to me ready for a major power-grab, as those good examples you gave illustrate, which will ultimately let it and whoever throws in with it think they can overcome even the “son of perdition.”
Thanks, as always, for your thoughts.